BOTANY character of the wheat-mildew fungus {Puccinia graminis) was noticed in Norfolk by Marshall in the year 1781, not so much as regards the fungus, perhaps, as with respect to the disease. In the following year * Marshall put the matter to experimental test by planting a barberry bush in the middle of a corn-field and demonstrated to his own and his friends' satisfaction that the mildew was produced thereby. Of the fungi causing plant diseases we have had many imported ; the dreaded larch disease {Peziza fVilkommii) for instance is rife in some of our young plantations where the trees have been imported from Scotland. The uredo on the cultivated chrysanthemum was introduced into the county in 1898, and still flourishes. Cronartium ribicolum, Dietr., thrives in gardens where the imported Weymouth pines have their branches distorted by the Peridermium. In conclusion, one remark on our sea-shore fungi. There are certain fungi which do not seem to be in the least injured by salt water : Poronia punctata I have only found in the county on horse-dung which has been washed up at ' high-water mark.' Ascobolus violaceus grows in profusion on cow-dung below high-water mark, while certain Uredince habitually occur on plants washed by the sea, e.g. Puccinia asteris on Aster tripolium and Uromyces limonii on Statice limonium. Detailed lists of Norfolk fungi will be found in the T'ransactions of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists^ Society, vol. i. October 29th, 1872; vol. iii. March, 1884, p. 730 ; vol. iv. March, 1889, p. 728.
- Marshall, Rural Economy of Norfolk, and ed. vol. ii. p. 19 (London, 1795).
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